Nice game.

I didn't expect to see graphics of this league in a Ludum Dare entry. Nice job! :slight_smile:

I found your game quite pleasing. The "weeeeeee" effect of spinning around with the fire balls is great. The lights are obviously very well handled and settle an intriguing mood.
I think your game could do with a clearer goal though : If you have to spill a certain amount of blood it could be a gauge & if you have to kill everything it could be a dead Red Eyed count. And maybe add a bit of feedback to enemies' deaths, as most of the time I noticed I killed some only when I was stepping on their corpses.
Overall, I think it's a nice result for a game jam project and enjoyed playing it ! :)

Now this was fun! Swing the fireballs absolutely fun and also adding a touch to the swinging hair is awesome to add giving a better fell of the character. Lots of fun thank you! Hope to see more updates in the future :D

Nice mood! The light contrasts nice with the dark environment :D

Very good graphics, well done !

First off, the graphics are great. Also the way to fight are really innovative. I just couldn't manage to get used to the controls at first. But the cool music and overall style kept me motivated.

Great game!

Your art is great and caught my eye along with the inovative idea. You also did a good job with the sound. =]

The poi are a bit difficult to control and I confess I didn't really understand the mouse buttons effects. I looks like they both do the same thing(??). And sometimes one of them would get stuck on the wall.

Keep up the nice work!

Really enjoyable to play, I liked the idea of controlling the balls by turning the mouse and the sprint, it really is very interesting for a jam entry! Congratulations on the graphics and the particles looks great! :D

Great feeling! The drums got you hyped. I would like the two modes to be much much different from one another, it wsn't obvious what was happening with the toches at first. But overall, the graphics, audio and gameplayer were visceral.

Nice work. Very impressive graphics and lighting effects that create a nice atmosphere. Would be interesting to see what you do with it after the jam.

@nathalia-hohl @microchasm Left mouse button switches mode of left poi. In one the poi is pulled in and in the other it can move much futher. The same applies for right mouse button and right poi. In future maybe we could add some other things you can do with your arms to help you controll your weapon

Anyway thanks everyone for nice feedback. It is soo probably we would continue the work post jam

@microchasm believe or not, but guitar with much lower pitch sounds like drums :D

Great art, great mood really enjoyed :)

I liked the artwork and light effects a lot, but I believe it could have been slightly brighter. Sound effects also changed the aura of the game. I liked the game in overall. Only thing I didn't completely get is the relation of the story to the jam theme. What are you keeping alive? The ritual?

@bearding8 Theme relation is placed mostly in mechanics. The fact that you can't fight back without the fire, that you have to place fire in environment to be able to recover after fire tricks. The fire dies -> you probably too.

I was confused on what to do with the left and right clic but anyway it was a refreshing style of gameplay. The guitar loop should have been a little longer to not be too repetitive ;-)

Even though it's a bit difficult to control I liked the combat, it's quite interesting and different. Graphics are at a great level.

Cool game! Graphics are perfect!

For some reasons the atmosphere is kinda mesmerizing...

This felt really interesting. Swinging around for the first time and seeing my poi move outwards made me really excited. I've never seen a weapon mechanic like that before!

Moving back and forth in the right way and flicking my mouse around seemed to build up momentum... I just couldn't quite get the poi moving in a way where it felt controlled enough that I was confidently able to attack the Red Eyes. Is there a technique I'm missing?

Like others mentioned, I didn't quite get the mouse buttons -> poi modes connection immediately. When it did click for me ... I definitely felt more in control but it always felt like having the poi swing out was better than having them close / tight.

The camera movement is a bit exaggerated, for me, which made it hard to see the initial speech bubbles. But I figured it out eventually.

Overall I think this is a really interesting jam and I feel like there's a lot of potential in using poi as weapons (strictly in a video game context :stuck_out_tongue: )

I had a little trouble getting a handle on the controls. But once i got going it was a lot of fun to swing the poi around. Loved the graphics. The lighting and fire particles were a great touch. great job.

Gameplay felt pretty unique! It was entertaining to explore the control's possibilities: throwing the fireballs, doing "spin attacks", or even just running towards enemies holding the flames. Setting the 'oil' on fire was also satisfying. I didn't get so far in the overall goal as there were way too many enemies everywhere, and one thing I missed was some stronger feedback when I got hit, as many times I died not being sure of the cause.

That said, exploration and the fire mechanics are pretty entertaining, it could be interesting to explore a larger dungeon with these mechanics. Good job!

Great game! I'm not sure the mouse buttons were working for me though. The middle mouse button performed a dash forward when I pressed it in, however both left and right mouse buttons didn't seem to do anything. I was still able to kill monsters, though I had to walk up to them or move back and forth quickly to get my poi flinging at them.

I think the poi mechanic is a really good idea with a lot of potential, though the implementation could use a lot of fine-tuning and polishing.

The graphics were top-notch. Great job on the lighting, art, animation, and mood of the whole scene. In fact this is my first 5 star rating in graphics so far!

The visual effect of fire is really cool. The controlling is a bit weird for me.

Loved the music and aesthetic, gameplay was interesting and fun too. I liked how you could light torches along the way to help you refill your fire and see where you were going. Might seem gruesome, but I would've liked to see maybe some sort of blood spatter or some sort of particle effect when you kill a red eye, sometimes in the mayhem it's difficult to see if you are actually having an effect.

Nice game though, well done.

Really nice. I like the whole atmosphere and mood building with the dialogue in the beginning. The use of light and shadow was well done and was a great way to improve your game play. The red glowing eyes in the shadows were a really cool detail. Great work on the AI there. The weapon modes on the torches were a nice touch as well. I had fun swinging them around :) The graphics were a bit rough and could use some more work (especially regarding animations) on the player character. What I didn't like was, how the camera had a fixed pivot point and wasn't changing distance to the player depending on how far I pointed the mouse. It was pretty irritating to play it like this. Furthermore, I had some issues with the balancing. It was really hard to kill the enemies and they, on the other hand, could just gang up on me and club me to death in a short amount of time. I saw that you uploaded a re-balanced version, so I guess that you already know about the issues.

Nontheless a great entry. Creepy mood with atmospheric lighting and some meele combat. I'd appreciate if the combat could be a little more responsive. Hit feedback is missing completely, if I remeber correctly.

A genuinely wonderful game, if a little tricky to get used to the controls of. The combat is interesting and the lighting is gorgeous. A bit more animation in the player character would be nice, but honestly that's a minor point in the overall experience of the game. Very good entry, well done!

The spinning mechanic is really fun, I started to get a little dizzy during intense combat moments, maybe a delay in the camera tracking would help? The graphics and sound mesh together perfectly.

What? Stunning graphics and you nailed the mood! Very good job!

Really good looking game the fire effect with the lighting was great. Interesting and quite unique controls. Good job!

1 cat = 1 like

The artstyle looks amazing! I love the fire effects and the overall game! Great work

nice work!, graphics and effects its so cool!!.

Ohh my what a awesome game you made totally love it even got into playing it so much. The last blue cats are a real surprise though. Good work.

Análise...

1 - Mecânicas, Aprendizado e Fluxo:
Achei muito interessante utilizar duas fontes de luz (tochas em correntes) como mecânica de ataque, iluminação, proteção e interações.
Sair de um ponto seguro, confrontar inimigos, evitar armadilhas, a poça que incendeia (não sei se é algum tipo de poça de petróleo).
Gostei daquela região onde o fogo muda de cor (não entendi bem se tinha algo a ver com o ar do lugar ou se as runas simbolizavam alguma alteração espiritual ali).
Aprender a andar com as tochas foi um pouco difícil (morri muitas vezes), ainda assim não dominei totalmente.
Às vezes as tochas ficavam presas (por correntes) a partes do estágio (não sei se isso foi proposital).
Eu não entendi se os gatos inimigos eram finitos (seria bom ter uma forma de saber se está avançando nesse sentido de confrontar eles).
Gostei da apresentação do jogo através das falas dos gatos de olhos azuis (isso já coloca tanto a história, quanto o próprio tutorial de uma forma pulável, e isso foi algo positivo (ao meu ver)).
Creio que se houver mais tempo para o projeto (após o tempo de Ludum Dare), algo positivo seria não ser colocado diretamente nesse local de ação, mas ter uma sala com menor quantidade de inimigos para aprender melhor a usar as "tochas em correntes".
O fluxo de jogo ficou um pouco confuso ao meu ver, além de um pouco ansioso, pois o personagem principal morre muito rápido e a missão não fica cem por cento clara (dado que um gato azul diz que é para matar os "olhos vermelhos", mas não me senti avançando muito e não pareceu uma tarefa possível de concluir, porque machucar ao atacar é muito fácil).
Se as outras partes do estágio podem interferir na condição de vitória, seria uma boa (para tempo pós game jam) fazer algum feedback maior da utilidade daquilo.
Colocar uma barra de vida em cada gato pode ser interessante também (algo que não polua a tela, por exemplo permitindo desabilitar apertando um botão).
O uso do tema no meio da mecânica ficou interessante e divertido, apesar da dificuldade. Parabéns à equipe de ideação e programação.

2 - Gráficos, Áudio e Narrativa:
A estética sombria, combinada com a iluminação das fontes de luz/fogo ficou muito interessante.
A personagem principal e os gatos poderiam ser polidos (fora do tempo do evento), especialmente se a ideia for continuar o projeto e incrementar inimigos com diferentes comportamentos.
Os efeitos sonoros me agradaram (majoritariamente).
A trilha sonora fez seu serviço de fundo (algo que poderia ser polido também).
A narrativa de "evocação do herói" poderia ser melhor trabalhada se o projeto tiver tempo para ser quebrado em diversos estágios (pós jam).

3 - Cultura:
O jogo bebe da fonte de histórias no estilo "evocar herói" (comuns em HQ orientais), bem como o uso de humanoides similares a gatos (personagem principal).
Gatos também são muito usados culturalmente, o que favorece encontrar nicho para o projeto (apesar de matar gatos afastar um pouco esse mesmo nicho, creio).
Com os devidos polimentos, este jogo (em diversos estágios) seria algo agradável a esse público-alvo e possíveis outros amantes de jogos de masmorra e ação.

4 - Monetização:
Creio que o projeto sendo polido e estendido, poderia vender em stores como itch.io. Se o trabalho em cima do projeto avançar ainda mais, creio que poderia vender no Steam.

Analysis...

1 - Mechanics, Learning and Flow:
I found it very interesting to use two light sources (torches in chains) as attack mechanics, lighting, protection and interactions.
Get out of a safe spot, confront enemies, avoid traps, the puddle that burns (I don't know if it's some kind of oil puddle).
I liked that region where the fire changes color (I didn't quite understand if it had something to do with the air in the place or if the runes symbolized some spiritual change there).
Learning to walk with the torches was a little difficult (I died many times), yet I still did not completely dominate.
Sometimes the torches were attached (by chains) to parts of the stage (I don't know if this was on purpose).
I didn't understand if the enemy cats were finite (it would be nice to have a way of knowing if you are making progress towards confronting them).
I liked the presentation of the game through the lines of the blue-eyed cats (this already puts both the story, and the tutorial itself in a skippable way, and that was something positive (in my view)).
I believe that if there is more time for the project (after Ludum Dare's time), a positive thing would be not to be placed directly in this place of action, but to have a room with fewer enemies to learn better how to use "chain torches" .
The game flow was a little confusing in my view, as well as a little anxious, as the main character dies very fast and the mission is not 100% clear (given that a blue cat says it is to kill the "red eyes" , but I didn’t feel that I was moving far and it didn’t seem like a possible task to complete, because hurting when attacking is very easy).
If the other parts of the stage can interfere with the victory condition, it would be a good thing (for post-game jam time) to give some more feedback on the usefulness of that.
Putting a life bar on each cat can be interesting too (something that does not pollute the screen, for example allowing you to disable it by pressing a button).
The use of the theme in the mechanics was interesting and fun, despite the difficulty. Congratulations to the ideation and programming team.

2 - Graphics, Audio and Narrative:
The dark aesthetic, combined with the illumination of the light / fire sources was very interesting.
The main character and the cats could be polished (outside the time of the event), especially if the idea is to continue the project and augment enemies with different behaviors.
The sound effects pleased me (mostly).
The soundtrack did its background work (something that could be polished too).
The narrative of "evoking the hero" could be better worked out if the project has time to be broken up in several stages (post jam).

3 - Culture:
The game draws on the source of stories in the style "evoke hero" (common in Eastern comics), as well as the use of humanoids similar to cats (main character).
Cats are also widely used culturally, which favors finding a niche for the project (although killing cats will put that niche away a little, I think).
With the proper polishing, this game (in several stages) would be something pleasing to this target audience and possible other lovers of dungeon and action games.

4 - Monetization:
I believe that the project, being polished and extended, could sell in stores like itch.io. If the work on the project progresses further, I think it could sell on Steam.

Screenshots look great and moody, wish I could try it, but I am on Mac

Cool game! well done. Love the graphics and audio and swinging around with fireballs is loads of fun. Sometimes I was a little confused as to how I died sometimes though.

The concept is cool, I love the cisuals, the music, even the hauting sounds of the cats. However I could never 100% warm up to the controls and I also could not figure out what I actually need to do in order to progress.

Se me flailing wildly:
https://youtu.be/mq6elJgLT4w

This was a neat physics-based combat game. Also, really solid use of the theme. The controls were a little hard and cumbersome. Maybe if you could "throw" out one of your poi in order to generate some momentum. Or if you had to click to a beat to generate automatic throws/momentum.

At any rate, I had fun. Thanks!

I liked how each fireball had each own behaviour. You only tell us kill some "red eyes", however the case is full of secrets (which were nice to explore btw), so I'm not sure if there is an extra objective. Those enemies feel to hard to kill and I wish there was a way to regenerate hp.
Overall I think the game is really nice!

@nunoribeiro There is a way to heal ;) check water out

oooh I love the main character and her long ponytail! Goes absolutely fantastic with her fireball flinging. What I liked too were the spooky red eyes everwhere! Really cool concept gameplay-wise and very distinct stylistically! Keep it up :3

I liked it! It was a nice game, and it shows that you worked a lot on it. I specially like the artstyle and audio. It was a bit hard for me to understand the controls, though.

Challenging game! I included it in my Ludum Dare 46 compilation video series, if you want to take a look. :) https://youtu.be/a4mUfaMtGeE